VELDA | boulder, co
0 2 d e c e m b e r
nanyang tech LINGUISTICS
univ of colorado boulder LINGUISTICS
this is [hatsuyuki] , where velda has been rocking the grammar since [180706]
i like my parfaits and maple syrup-drenched hotcakes
hmm, what else.. oh yes,
maybe listening to me isnt such a bad idea after all
what a cute song. =) its quite a japanese oldie, but i love the lyrics, its like what a bridegroom-to-be tells his bride-to-be before the wedding. damn cute! like dont get jealous for nothing, i wont two-time you! or dont forget, my loved one, i love only you, you know! haha. rewatched suekko chounan ane sannin, and fell in love with okada junichi once more. he's so sweet in the show. and sada masashi's songs are sort of like the drama's unofficial soundtrack. thats why i got this song.
im gg to be 21 in about 4 months, wow. just thinking about that makes me wonder if i have spent my 20th year satisfied with myself. i think on the whole i love who i am, and what i am now, but ive let friends down, harbour horrible thoughts in this year as well. ive taken dy for granted a few times, basically not putting in as much effort as i wanted to. and now, entering uni, its gg to be a whole different ball game altogether. making different friends, the whole cycle starts again. yt, jess are leading new lives in melbourne, and so are we here. the gyus in army, and the rest of us in the other environments life puts us in. i think being 21 means a whole lot. you dont get sheltered by your parents anymore, and take a more proactive approach in leading your life. and i think leading your own life means being satisfied with who you are as a person, not being disappointed with your own actions.
i just had the singularly best japanese meal in my life, at akashi at orchard parade hotel. i was never much one for sushi and raw fish, but the ones i had at akashi was damnnnnn goood. the tsukiji market breakfast was great too, but when you dont have to worry about the price of it, it tastes the best, i guess. thats why i loveee my duagu. =)) too bad he didnt bring his camera today so i dont have nice food pics, but i can steal some off his facebook, some pics he took when he ate there last. we ate about the same things; he likes just sitting at the counter and letting the masterchef provide us with a spread. i lost count of the number of types of fish we had..
kanpachi, hirame, kinmedai, shiroebi, botan ebi, kajiki, tai, mirugai, asari, uni, tako, akagai, kawahagi, kani, ishidai, aji, shimaaji, ohtorooo.. i think there was more, but i cnt remember them all now. got snails too. and it was the first time i had GEODUCK.. its damn ugly in real life, but damn hao chi in sushi form. i dont want to post the geoduck (pronounce 'gooey-duck') picture here, because its really ugly so link. some pictures of what i did eat are below:
kinmedai sushi 金目鯛 red snapper
jumbo botan ebi sushi 牡丹蝦 sweet shrimp
a must - the fish of all fish - ohtoro sushi 大トロ fattiest part of the tuna belly
i was a bit apprehensive about this, snail lehh.. but when i put it in my mouth all i could taste was the sauce. the snail itself was firm, not rubbery as i expected, and very easy to chew.
we had champagne too, and sake. not cheap not cheap. thats where my duagu comes in all the time. eff, i just searched and the bottle of champs we shared was effing NOT CHEAP. cristal champagne - can be 350USD a bottle OR MORE. i just drank 100USD worth of champagne! goodness. and the sake, kubota manjyu - limited edition sake. also about 200 bucks a bottle. thank you duaguuuuu for all your love. haha.
duagu says ill definitely go to sleep damn satisfied tonight. i think i will man.
wo men shi hebe! everyone's super cute in the group; i think im probably the only hss person in a group full of cnyang scholars and business ppl.. hehe. but it was still fun. everyone always, "wahh... linguistics.. cheem seh.." while im doing the same thing: "wahh.. computer science.. simi lai eh..?" but oh well. its great to meet ppl with varying interests. that was what was beautiful about poly as well, isn't it?
was just browsing through youtube that day - i can't remember for what, but i suddenly had this inexplicable urge to watch a disney classic - sleeping beauty. wahh, you know when you watch it at kindergarten age, you get mesmerised by the magic, and the whole princess falls in love with prince idea? after watching it again at this age, you realise how great the script was. the three fairies are super funny, and it made me relive the awe i had when watching the movie the first time when i was 4 or 5. i think im gg to watch cinderella and bambi again too.
that got me thinking about shows i loved years ago, that i didnt manage to collect like my japanese dramas, so i only watched them once. things like:
1 the magical legend of the leprechauns - wah this one was super good, with randy quaid. i love leprechauns and irish accents (plus scottish accents) and loved the idea of the faeries and leprechauns being at war, and romeo and juiet style story. so magical!! but i dont know where i can watch this again - ive never seen it on dvd in singapore at all. i wonder if hallmark will ever show them again, perhaps i can email, if not ill miss it. i dont really watch hallmark shows often, only once in a while when i surf to the channel, and i get pleasantly surprised with gems like this.
2 the tenth kingdom - this is a great great miniseries by hallmark, i think anyone who's watched it will agree with me. great script; many people have put the fairytales and nursery rhymes together into one story for books and movies, and this one was one of the best. you would be just pulled along for the ride and watch the show to the end. scott cohen was damn good as Wolf.
3 rodgers and hammerstein's cinderella - you know, the one with the rainbow cast with whitney houston as fairy godmother, brandy as cinderella, this filipino guy as the prince.. the songs were really good, and cinderella is a never-fail storyline. of course at that time, i thought the prince was damn shuai lah. asian mah, must support. haha. in lower sec i think, when i watched it.
i found tenth kingdom and magical legend on amazon as a SET buy. i think i will get it. hehehe. yippee!
im back from camp, and i ache in places i never imagined i had muscles in. it was chore to get up from the bed in the morning i tell you. but camp, though effingly freakingly disgustingly dirty, was still fun. i think camps are like tt - its really all about the camaraderie in the end. and if sook ching ever puts up those pictures she took of us on initiation night, she's gg to regret it. i think i was covered in egg, flour, chilli sauce, soya sauce, erm.. and others. and i spoilt andy's nice tie. (sorry!) and i had to throw away everything i wore tt night. plus wash my hair three times, and soaped up five times. sentosa was fun, i think even though it totally drained me, the fact that we won the finale was super rewarding. im glad the four guys in the group were really supportive, and all the girls were enthusiastic, and we got through each game really well.
okay, so now back into reality, and reality tells me im headed for hostel life in less than two weeks, and darryn's headed for camp in wahh.. 2 days! haha. my throat's not really much better, cause of all the screaming i did in camp, and i havent really prepared anything for hall and school yet. duagu and aunty amy's bringing me out for dinner next tuesday, whoopee! to akashi at orchard parade hotel. i saw some pics of the sushi he had there tt time, and i cnt wait. dont know if you all can see or not, but here they are.
and anyone who's willing to buy this Agatha Christie Crime Anthology DVD Collection for me, i will seriously love you till the day i die. like seriously. its a must-have for all Christie fans, and i dont have!! ^^" omg omg omg david suchet as poirot.. its just like how ppl like andre like to collect collection's editions of battlestar galactica or lost or x files or whatever he's watching. my current crave is for this set of seriously beautiful dvds. hyahhyah..
muackers. i think ive read all her books. like really. about 70 plus 80 in all.
Discovery Channel's latest interstitial on-air: I Love The World. this seems to be the US version, but its quite similar. love the parts with the mythbusters, mike rowe, the hot magma one and the astronauts. sibeh cute.
trust me, its great. just take one minute to watch it if you love discovery programmes. we watched it on the big screen in gv max today, and everyone in the cinema loved it, some even started clapping. great one from Discovery. =)
the dark knight was crazily good, heath ledger IS the Joker. wow. loved the scene where he was in the nurse uniform and he used the hand sanitizer. that was hilarious. shouldn't miss it eh.
if anyone's wondering why ive been blogging so much recently, its because im sick again. daymn. the afterthought i talked about the previous entry has become a constant reminder. and my cough.. oh godddd. i hate hate hate being sick it makes me feel so lethargic, and my throat hurts, and i cnt do a lot of things. and so when im sick, the only thing i can do is blog. >_<
on to some happier news, ASG 2008 ended smoothly yesterday, and ichiro had quite an okay game. definitely not as exciting as last year's, but he stopped albert pujols from advancing to second base with another laser beam throw from deep right field to derek jeter. see it here. you must have microsoft silverlight to watch it though. ill try to find if there's a youtube equivalent later.
im waiting for my hair to dry, and to go get porridge. =(
what was i gg to talk about? oh yes, ill be away for three days next week on camp! ashley and me are like, haah, must bring swimwear ah.. haha. but oh well, at least its not a week's worth of camp. and i think sook ching is our ogl, have to check with her. =) everything's happening fast now, and im not ready at all to go to school. its still rather holiday mood for me. shortlisted for the STEP award thing from the minister mentor too, and if i get that, ill be really happy. will update you all. =)
ASG 2008 is happening in less than 8 hours.. just watched the home run derby, and when everyone expected josh hamilton to get it after his tmd run of 28 homers in the first round, justin morneau stunned him in the last round to take the home run derby champ. it was greaat fun to see everyone just having a ball of a time (pun!) and basically just enjoying the night. love it that homers hit win money for charity, and especially when someone like josh hamilton who fought drug addiction for three years, came back the way he did. its a story of success, really. and it touches you when you see someone turning his life around, and probably influencing hundreds of other people to make something out of their life too.
ichiro is playing tmr! he had had a slow start, to say the least, and the mariners' results are DISMAL. =( they've been winning a leetle bit more recently, but they're wayy at the bottom. sigh. its always a chore to click on the mariners.com update in my email only to see another loss. i rmb last year's all-star game and ichiro being mvp.. that was seriously exciting. =D hope something good comes out of this one too.
okay, enough of baseball.
muahaha. and im sick. =( though its kind of more like an afterthought right now, am recovering alr. yesterday was rather bad; sort of migraine and such. and i blame it on red wine and andy's tekong virus.
sleeptime. wonder if i'd be able to wake up at 7am for breakfast and a nice cup of hot coffee before the game. hmm.. seems mightily impossible though.
im watching trick 2 on disc and trying to blog at the same time. trick 2 is still as stupid as i remember it. the script and the acting never fail to make me laugh. whoever would have thought of such classic characters? sometimes i think singaporean dramas should try veering away from their tested and tried formulas of family dramas and try new stuff.
shanghai jazz last night after ageeeeeees, the whole crowd was there, william, ford, joe, karen, wilson.. and calvin, of course. =) sunday night's quiet in town, and it was great talking and catching up with everyone. william is working himself to death, really, and its quite worrying. he looked like a 23 year old gg on to 30. goodness. calvin was saying he's thinking of using anti-ageing products at a ripe old age of 29. i mean, i know it's really hard to be successful as a chef, but its only when you see them then you realise the truth of it. poor things. but its great seeing calvin again, really.
the desktop wallpapers on pixiegirl are great works of art, i spent a happy hour looking through some of them. love the look on my desktop!
freshfresh! my blog's on a refresh daisakusen and so is my desktop. yummie. ooh and i bought something today! on zuunbo.com. i was looking for a laptop sleeve together with a hardshell case to protect apple-san, and it just so happens that zuunbo was offering flickzcases for sale. and i bought the white one! =D super happy.
chef calvin's probably landing in the airport as i speak.. =) excited. haven't seen him in like, what? 2 years and more? yippees..
just went to the newly-opened e!hub with dydydydyngpigguujunyanguu just to look see, and okay, it sort of reminede me of the time in the past where those old children's playground things were popular, you know, where children could crawl in and out of tubes and play in a pool of multicoloured balls. it was a family-oriented place, with basically loads of food outlets and no shopping. it's too far to the east for me, i think.
but we did try the cadbury ferris wheel just for the heck of it. it was fun if you like ferris wheels, but if not, don't bother. so andy and i were cheap-thrilling all the way as we tried to guess how many rounds $11.50 will bring us.
who wants to see more ludan? he's looking more and more like ludan than ever, seriously. hahah!
very kiddy, we know, but the colours at night were nicee
typical armee boy look: note the cap plus black-rimmed specs
view from inside the ferris wheel was okay, i guess
i dunno if i can type properly; my fingers are numb as hell. i started a casual game of tetris at 11.40pm, and finished at 12.40am because my eyes were hurting me and i reached 999 lines and the game doesn't record any more lines than tt. i think im good. hahaha. tetris.. eeyer, so nerdy. haha. i find out i always play better after not playing the game for a spell.
apart from tt, ive been re-acquainting myself with iron chef! have always loved the series when it was showing on weird times on channel 5, and i suddenly thought of watching my beloved mario-esque french chef sakai hiroyuki in action. so i turned to youtube. haha. they have full episodes of the show there, and it's as good as usual. fuelled my fascination with the occupation. heard from chef calvin in the past that iron chef competitions are a reality in the culinary world, and that amazes me in itself. calvin himself competed in some before, i think. he said the stress was so great you could hear the adrenalin pumping through you. ahhh i want to watch!
ooh, and i know i havent been keeping up with baseball news, since now tt the most exciting one now is that a-rod's wife is leaving him because she thinks he's sleeping with madonna. (-"-;) the selection for the 2008 ALL-STAR game in yankee stadium is out! and ichiro is in it! i thought many voters might think he doesn't deserve the chance because he's not been playing well AT ALL, but oh well, don't doubt the power of japanese voters. ^^
for own reference. haha. home run derby is always fun to watch, cnt wait... =D too bad andy's in camp if not ill force him to watch the ASG with me.
i posted the starting lineup for AL last year, so for my own sake, here goes:
ASG 2008 American League Starters C | Joe Mauer | Minnesota Twins 1B | Kevin Youkilis | Boston Red Sox 2B | Dustin Pedroia | Boston Red Sox 3B | Alex Rodriguez | New York Yankees SS | Derek Jeter | New York Yankees OF | Josh Hamilton | Texas Rangers OF | Manny Ramirez | Boston Red Sox OF | Ichiro Suzuki | Seattle Mariners DH | David Ortiz | Boston Red Sox
Behold the power of the red sox nation. wah raos..
haolian a bit.. my spanking new mr apple plus its baby, master red nano. hahaha. ive been hooked on them ever since. =D and on digestive biscuits, but tts another thing altogether. ooh and arashi's on the desktop. =)
felt like blogging because i read the blog of the girlfriend of the nsman who passed away in brunei just less than a month ago. i didn't know i would have such a big reaction, but when you put yourself in her shoes, you cannot imagine the amount of pain she must have felt, when she received the news. just as you were thinking happily that he'll be back soon, only to find out he's not gg to come back again. she was grateful to everyone who gave her support and her boyfriend's family, and i sincerely hope she will be able to step out from this a stronger person. my heart really goes out to her, and her words make me realise how much i should treasure the people around me. the photos on the blog made me cry, and i can only hope i will never have to face that kind of pain.
sometimes, a lot of problems we face are really trivial, just that we forget to take a step back to realise them as so. we worry over small things, get angry over nothing, and basically achieve nothing except more sadness.
people are dying everyday, but its through their friends and families' love for them that their memories live on, and this is how their stories get passed on. like this one.
may we all learn to treasure the people around us more.
i didnt sleep again. am gg to get scolded upside down by dy, because hes booking out today and i will tell him even though i dont want to. it'll just slip out of my mouth, like "eh, dy, i never sleep again yesterday!". its a subconscious thing, i tell u.
so basically i spent the whole night watching youtube. and im starting to think cao ge is cute. i used to think, aiyah, okay lah, his songs are superb and everything, but.. erm. something like tt. but i like his laughter. and i think i have a certain type when it comes to guys. sompat. i like the (i cnt think of a better word) burly? kind. like blur blur shy shy then big sized a bit wrong-footed kind. you know you know? i think dy is a bit like tt too. so is cao ge, thought he not say v big sized, but just by looking at his face u also feel he the huggable kind. HAHA. oh and plus guys who look good in glasses.
like pin guan.
he even has a nerdy enough name - VICTORRR. aha, probaby one of the few guys who look good in glasses.
i lovelovelove my new macbook! im so happy i got it, macs just make their owners happy, dont they? =) and because of that back to school promotion i have an effing chio red ipo to boot. *loves* sooo happy. now that school's starting and everything, i promise to faithfully update my ical and check my mail with mac mail, because everything is so much faster now on the macbook i can open more applications than everrr.
chef calvin is coming back! yippee! he's leaving chicago and heading for macau to start his new chef de cuisineship with some restaurant in crown macau. was talking to him on the phone after ages, when we thought, hey since we're both using mac, lets chat on yahoo messenger. so we had a webcam chat (my first ever) and he showed me the view outside his chicago lake michigan apartment. damn nice. anws, he's spending a month in singapore first, so i'd bet there's loads of catching up to do.
am helping ochre pictures do some japanese coordinating work for their production, and its harder than i thought. who the hell knows what intelligent robotic technology translates to in japanese?
talking to jess and yt online now. =) they finally got internet. whooopeee.
love my life thats complemented by macbook. really. woohoo.
